Thursday, February 15, 2007

NPR Report Says Students Who Think They Can Become Smarter Perform Better in School

Today's Morning Edition on NPR included a report that confirms what many of us believe -- students who think they can get smarter actually do. I think this goes directly to ensuring that students have the self confidence and are provided with the support to know that they can be successful.

From the report:

All children develop a belief about their own intelligence,
according to research psychologist Carol Dweck from Stanford University. "Some
students start thinking of their intelligence as something fixed, as
carved in stone," Dweck says. "They worry about, 'Do I have enough?
Don't I have enough?'" Dweck calls this a "fixed mindset" of intelligence.

"Other
children think intelligence is something you can develop your whole
life," she says. "You can learn. You can stretch. You can keep
mastering new things." She calls this a "growth mindset" of intelligence. Dweck
wondered whether a child's belief about intelligence has anything to do
with academic success. So, first, she looked at several hundred
students going into seventh grade, and assessed which students believed
their intelligence was unchangeable, and which children believed their
intelligence could grow. Then she looked at their math grades over the
next two years.

"We saw among those
with the growth mindset steadily increasing math grades over the two
years," she says. But that wasn't the case for those with the so-called
"fixed mindset." They showed a decrease in their math grades.

This led Dweck and her colleague, Lisa Blackwell, from Columbia University to ask another question. "If
we gave students a growth mindset, if we taught them how to think about
their intelligence, would that benefit their grades?" Dweck wondered.

So,
about 100 seventh graders, all doing poorly in math, were randomly
assigned to workshops on good study skills. One workshop gave lessons
on how to study well. The other taught about the expanding nature of
intelligence and the brain.

The
students in the latter group "learned that the brain actually forms new
connections every time you learn something new, and that over time,
this makes you smarter."

Students' View of Intelligence Can Help Grades

Morning Edition, February 15, 2007 · A new study in the scientific journal Child Development shows that if you teach students that their intelligence can grow and increase, they do better in school.

All
children develop a belief about their own intelligence, according to
research psychologist Carol Dweck from Stanford University.

"Some
students start thinking of their intelligence as something fixed, as
carved in stone," Dweck says. "They worry about, 'Do I have enough?
Don't I have enough?'"

Dweck calls this a "fixed mindset" of intelligence.

"Other
children think intelligence is something you can develop your whole
life," she says. "You can learn. You can stretch. You can keep
mastering new things."

She calls this a "growth mindset" of intelligence.

Dweck
wondered whether a child's belief about intelligence has anything to do
with academic success. So, first, she looked at several hundred
students going into seventh grade, and assessed which students believed
their intelligence was unchangeable, and which children believed their
intelligence could grow. Then she looked at their math grades over the
next two years.

"We saw among those
with the growth mindset steadily increasing math grades over the two
years," she says. But that wasn't the case for those with the so-called
"fixed mindset." They showed a decrease in their math grades.

This led Dweck and her colleague, Lisa Blackwell, from Columbia University to ask another question.

"If
we gave students a growth mindset, if we taught them how to think about
their intelligence, would that benefit their grades?" Dweck wondered.

So,
about 100 seventh graders, all doing poorly in math, were randomly
assigned to workshops on good study skills. One workshop gave lessons
on how to study well. The other taught about the expanding nature of
intelligence and the brain.

The
students in the latter group "learned that the brain actually forms new
connections every time you learn something new, and that over time,
this makes you smarter."

Basically,
the students were given a mini-neuroscience course on how the brain
works. By the end of the semester, the group of kids who had been
taught that the brain can grow smarter, had significantly better math
grades than the other group.

"When they
studied, they thought about those neurons forming new connections,"
Dweck says. "When they worked hard in school, they actually visualized
how their brain was growing."

Dweck
says this new mindset changed the kids' attitude toward learning and
their willingness to put forth effort. Duke University psychologist,
Steven Asher, agrees. Teaching children that they're in charge of their
own intellectual growth motivates a child to work hard, he says.

"If
you think about a child who's coping with an especially challenging
task, I don't think there's anything better in the world than that
child hearing from a parent or from a teacher the words, 'You'll get
there.' And that, I think, is the spirit of what this is about."

Dweck's latest book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, gives parents and teachers specific ways to teach the growth mindset of intelligence to children.